Doors for a recreational vehicle, such as the compartment doors and the entry door, are integral components to the overall body construction of the recreational vehicle. The compartment doors, for example, are generally located along the bottom perimeter of the vehicle structure and they form the side skirts of the vehicle. The entry door once it is closed, also serve as a side panel of the vehicle. The location of these doors, however, subject the doors to variety of damaging elements, such as flying rocks from the tires, road debris, scratches, door dents, rain, snow, and the harmful effects of ultra-violet sunlight. As a result, after a period of use, these doors will deteriorate, thereby adversely affecting the overall appearance of the recreational vehicle.
Furthermore, recreational vehicles are designed and intended to travel long distances, where the surrounding temperature may vary widely. As the temperature varies, however, the exposed panel (outer surface) of the door is subject to greater temperature variations then the inner panel, thereby causing the exposed panel and the inner panel to expand and contract at different rates. As a result, under such circumstances the compartment doors and entry door may bow and/or distort, causing the doors to crack and deteriorate during these cycles of expansion and contraction.
Commercially, a variety of materials are used to manufacture these doors. One such material is fiberglass. However, there are number of shortcomings with use of fiberglass. For example, fiberglass is highly susceptible to hair line scratches and dents, which may be readily visible to a casual viewer. In addition, after some use, the finished surface of the fiberglass will fade and look chalky or discolored due to the damaging effects of ultra-violet sunlight. Using fiberglass can also be very expensive because one mold can only produce two to three parts per day. Using fiberglass is also hazardous to the environment because in order to produce a smooth surface, the surface area must be buffed, releasing dust from fiberglass into the atmosphere. Additionally, a layer of GELCOAT-resin is generally applied over the surface area of the fiberglass for protection, but during this process vapors of GELCOAT-resin are emitted into the atmosphere creating problems to the environment and the operators working near the area.
Aluminum is also used to manufacture doors for recreational vehicles, but here too there are number of shortcomings. For example, design versatility is limited with aluminum, and adding curves or ribs to shape a sheet of aluminum is relatively expensive compared to plastics. Also, with aluminum, the aluminum door has to be painted to match the overall color of the recreational vehicle, whereas with plastics it can be color coordinated to match the color of the recreational vehicle. Aluminum is also highly susceptible to dents and scratches. And the relative high cost of aluminum makes the overall cost of manufacturing these door with aluminum very expensive.
Alternatively, manufacturers in the past have tried using an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (hereinafter ABS) plastic composite material to manufacture the compartment doors, however, with this material, a noticeable distortion occurred on the face of the door due to the expansion and contraction characteristics of the ABS plastic when exposed to varying degrees of hot and cold temperatures. This characteristic prevented manufactures from taking advantage of its preferred qualities over other materials, such as resistance to superficial scratches, high impact resistance, durability against chalking or discoloration, design versatility, environmentally being clean, holding tight dimensional tolerances, and lower production cost.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for durable doors for a recreational vehicle that do not bow and/or distort under varying temperatures, which is durable against scratches, dents, and discoloration, and which also reduces the production cost of these doors.